New Orleans Pelicans Podcap: Pels Sweep Wolves Behind Second Half Surge
The New Orleans Pelicans won 123-109, behind 75 points in a monstrous second half. The club set a season record with 40 in the third and swept the Wolves on the season. They are winners in four out of their last five! Preston Ellis (@PrestonEllis) is joined by Pelican Debrief Contributor Wilton Jackson (@WiltonReports) for the Pelican Debrief Pod-Cap of the win.
The season ain’t over yet for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Six different Pels scored in double digits tonight. The Pels were led by heroes Anthony Davis, with 28 points and Jordan Crawford A.K.A. “Instant Grits” with 22.
New Orleans was also paced by E’Twaun Moore with 14, DeMarcus Cousins with 15, Jrue Holiday with 21 and only two turnovers and Solomon Hill with 13, who has quietly scored in double digits in four of the past five games.
Big guy must love his birthday week.
The Wolves fell, despite Karl-Anthony Towns going off for 33 points and six rebounds. KAT is now 0-5 against Anthony Davis in his career. The Wolves were driven by Andrew Wiggins with 25, Shabazz Muhammad with 18 and Ricky Rubio with 10 and 14.
The game was tight late, when the Wolves pulled as close as two 94-92. Then, Jordan Crawford pulled the Pels away with eight consecutive points, including two threes from dang near Poydras.
The Wolves came out red hot early in the first, shooting 65 percent from the field with 11 assists on 12 made shots, seven of those belonging to Ricky Rubio.
The highlight of the quarter belonged to Anthony Davis on the receiving end of a gorgeous reverse alley oop from E’Twaun Moore. The Pels used a a similar play design against the Trailblazers last week from Boogie. Keep this one up Gentry. It’s a keeper!
The Pels got out of the period trailing 34-28. They were lucky to keep it that close, as Wiggins finished it off with two missed free throws.
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Alviiiiiiiiiin!!!!! (Chipmunks reference)
Gentry threw a wrench at Pels’ fans in the second, when he started with a lineup featuring Tim Frazier, E’Twaun Moore, Dante Cunningham, Donatas Montiejunas and Jordan Crawford. A curious decision to leave the floor without AD, Boogie or Jrue. Especially as Karl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins remained on the floor.
In a complete shocker, the Wolves extended their lead against this lineup, pulling out to 48-37 at the six minute mark. Crawford ended a 10-0 run with a three, before the Pels pulled to 54-48, with a 6-0 run of their own at the end of the half.
The Wolves led by as many as 12 in the second quarter. The Pels finished the half with a dreadful 10 turnovers, eight in the second quarter. That includes five from the Brow alone.
But the second half would be a different story.
Jrue and AD paced the Pels with 10 each in the third quarter. The Pels got contributions from Crawford and Hill and used a 20-6 run to take a 75-69 lead. The quarter ended closely locked at 88-84.
After watching the Wolves in person against the Pels and the Magic in Orlando, a patterns occurs where they get caught seemingly sleep walking on defense in the third. That was evident again tonight.
They’ve been playing great defense lately, having beaten teams like the Warriors, Clippers and Wizards in the past ten games. Earlier in the season Fivethirtyeight.com gave them a historically bad -30 rating for the third quarter.
Though Tom Thibodeau shored up that glitch, it really glared its ugly head back tonight.
In the fourth quarter, the Pels pulled away with a 12-0 run featuring scoring sprees from Davis, Moore and Crawford. That put the game out of reach, as the Pels led 114-99. There was no turning back from there.
This win now moves the Pels to a record of 29-41, as the Wolves fall to 28-41. With a 3-0 season sweep of the Wolves, their 3rd all time, they now own the tie breaker. With the Nuggets eventual trip to Houston on Monday, fans have to think they’d be just four games back of the Nuggets, with three head to head clashes left and 12 games in all.
Next: New Orleans Pelicans Sign Quinn Cook to 10-Day Contract
The Pelicans face the Memphis Grizzlies next, at 8 p.m. at the Smoothie King Center this Tuesday.